Conan O’Brien was the host of The Oscars this year, and the show began with all of the typical things that an opening monologue has. There were a lot of jokes about the people and movies nominated, and it took an overly long time to give away the first award. The big difference this year was that Conan was a lot funnier than Kimmel, who was last year’s host. I found the long introduction was not as unbearable to sit through as it has been in the past.
The biggest winner of the night was “Anora.” Sean Baker became the first person to ever win four Oscars in one night. Those awards were Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. Mikey Madison also shocked most award pundits and won Best Actress. “Anora” led in the total number of Oscars won throughout the night, with five.
In second place for award count was “The Brutalist,” with three awards. The most notable was Adrien Brody, winning best actor. Brody delivered the best performance of the year, so seeing him win was well-deserved. Lol Crawley also won for cinematography, and Daniel Blumberg won for his original score.
The rest of the night went according to award pundits’ predictions and a lot of indie films won. Both big winners, “Anora” and “The Brutalist,” were produced by NEON and A24, respectively. “Flow” won Best Animated Feature, a Latvian indie film. “I’m Still Here” won for Best International Film.
The films backed by big studios, like “Dune Part II”, “Emilia Perez”, and “Wicked” all won two Oscars each.
For some people, it was the year they received their first Oscar, with Latvia and Brazil both winning one for the first time, as well as Paul Tazewell becoming the first black man to win Best Costume Design.
The 2025 Oscars were a lot better than last year’s show. Not even on a movie basis, but because they spent a lot of time shouting out some of the technical categories that people work on that make these films work well. The costume designers, the cinematographers, the people that normally are not given the credit that the big stars get, all got more time dedicated to them than usual. I enjoyed that a lot and found it to be a very nice change of pace from the usual award show script.
While these Oscars ran long, as they tend to do, I found that they highlighted a real bright spot in the industry – the power of independent films. “Anora” and “The Brutalist” were made for under ten million dollars and are new, unique and daring. Hollywood should continue pushing to award these films more.
For the full awards list, visit the Oscars website.
